Several can say they played at top teams at just one school. Paul Bess can say he played for two. Bess’s basketball career started at Holton High School, playing two years of varsity basketball for head coach Bill White where he starred alongside names such as Rick Ebinger, Kelvin Comer, and Dan Meisberger. In 1969, Bess and company led the Warhorses to one of their most successful campaigns, only losing four games that year which included a sectional loss to eventual regional champion Jac-Cen-Del. It would be the final season for Holton basketball and force Bess and his buddies with a difficult decision.

Bess, Comer, and Meisberger would all decide to pledge their new allegiance to South Ripley High School and in doing so, forever changed the boys’ basketball program at the school. Those three joined Raider star Chris Smith and head coach Dale Ricketts for the 1969-1970 season, taking the town of Versailles for an absolute ride as the green and white finished with a 25-1 overall record, an unbeaten regular season and four different championships as Ripley finished as county and conference champions, sectional champions and regional champions. South Ripley fell to Crispus Attucks in the opening round of the semi-state at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The 25-1 record still stands as a program best and most wins in school history while the regional is just one of two, the other coming 11 years later in 1981. Bess would be very much a part of that, earning All-ORVC, All-County, All-Sectional, and All-Regional honors alongside Smith and Comer. He would also be the only member of that team selected to the All-Semi-State Tournament Team.

Bess also ended that year selected as an All-State member by All-American Report Magazine. In his lone year at South Ripley, he would finish with an average of 11.9 points per game and scored a career-high 23 points against North Decatur in the afternoon game of the 1970 Regional. Despite his career ending the next weekend against Attucks, he would score 19 points in that game to lead the Raiders, forever cementing his place as one the school’s most prolific players despite just one year donning SR colors.

Perhaps his biggest accomplishment at South Ripley was meeting his future wife and forever cheerleader Libby Williams. After graduation, Paul attended Marian University and then embarked on a life with Libby in Florida that saw him become a brick mason and owner of Bess Masonry. He would later become a state-licensed Plans Examiner and Building Inspector. The couple has two daughters -Taryn and Shayna- and Paul’s love for basketball trickled down to them and other youth in Florida as he would spend several years coaching at the youth level before retiring from a successful career in 2004.